PATTON
DIRECTED BY FRANKLIN J. SCAFFNER
20th. CENTURY FOX
Information From IMDb
Plot Summary
"Patton" tells the tale of General George S. Patton, famous tank commander of World War II. The film begins with patton's career in North Africa and progresses through the invasion of Germany and the fall of the Third Reich. Side plots also speak of Patton's numerous faults such his temper and habit towards insubordination. Faults which would, eventually, lead to his being relieved as Occupation Commander of Germany.
Written by Anthony Hughes
Cast
George C. Scott ... Gen. George S. Patton Jr.
Karl Malden ... Gen. Omar N. Bradley
Stephen Young ... Capt. Chester B. Hansen
Michael Strong ... Brig. Gen. Hobart Carver
Carey Loftin ... Gen. Bradley's driver (as Cary Loftin)
Albert Dumortier ... Moroccan Minister
Frank Latimore ... Lt. Col. Henry Davenport
Morgan Paull ... Capt. Richard N. Jenson
Karl Michael Vogler ... Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
Bill Hickman ... Gen. Patton's driver
Pat Zurica ... 1st Lt. Alexander Stiller (as Patrick J. Zurica)
James Edwards ... Sgt. William George Meeks
Lawrence Dobkin ... Col. Gaston Bell
David Bauer ... Lt. Gen. Harry Buford
John Barrie ... Air Vice-Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham
Richard Münch ... Col. Gen. Alfred Jodl (as Richard Muench)
Siegfried Rauch ... Capt. Oskar Steiger
Michael Bates ... Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery
Paul Stevens ... Lt. Col. Charles R. Codman
Gerald Flood ... Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder
Jack Gwillim ... Gen. Sir Harold Alexander
Ed Binns ... Maj. Gen. Walter Bedell Smith (as Edward Binns)
Peter Barkworth ... Col. John Welkin
Lionel Murton ... Third Army chaplain
David Healy ... Clergyman
Sandy Kevin ... Correspondent
Douglas Wilmer ... Maj. Gen. Francis de Guingand
John Doucette ... Maj. Gen. Lucian K. Truscott
Tim Considine ... Soldier who gets slapped
Abraxas Aaran ... Willy
Clint Ritchie ... Tank captain
Alan MacNaughton ... British briefing officer
Writing credits
Ladislas Farago (book "Patton: Ordeal and Triumph")
Omar N. Bradley (book "A Soldier's Story")
Francis Ford Coppola (screen story) and
Edmund H. North (screen story)
Francis Ford Coppola (screenplay) and
Edmund H. North (screenplay)
Produced by
Frank Caffey .... associate producer
Frank McCarthy .... producer
Original Music
Jerry Goldsmith
Stunts amongst others, (recognise this surname?)
Joe Canutt .... action coordinator
Joe Canutt .... stunt coordinator (uncredited)
Trivia
* George C. Scott won the Academy Award for best actor and famously refused to accept it, claiming that competition between actors was unfair and a "meat parade".
* Producer Frank McCarthy was a retired brigadier general who served on the staff of Gen. George C. Marshall during World War II; he worked for 20 years to make a film about Patton.
* Rod Steiger, Lee Marvin, Robert Mitchum and Burt Lancaster all turned down the lead role.
* John Wayne eagerly sought the role of General Patton but was turned down by the producer.
* John Huston, Henry Hathaway and Fred Zinnemann each declined to direct the film. William Wyler agreed to direct, but differed with George C. Scott over the script and left for another film.
* Nearly half the budget was spent on soldiers and equipment rented from the Spanish army.
* The opening speech, which was shot last, was originally intended to be at the beginning of the second half (after the intermission).
* Many of the quotes from the opening speech are real quotes from George S. Patton. However, not all of them were said at one time; rather, the speech is an assemblage of Patton moments.
* Some of the stock actual war footage was shot by future director Russ Meyer, who was a combat cameraman in the U.S. Army's Signal Corps during World War II.
* This film was originally entitled "Patton: Salute to a Rebel" and pre-release promotional material carried that title. The title was changed just prior to general release.
* Parts of the speech at the beginning were inspired by a real speech Patton gave before the 3rd Army finally landed in Normandy in late June and early July 1944. The parts of the speech used are watered-down versions of what Patton actually said.
* This was the second, and last, film to be produced in the Dimension 150 process.
* Although Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North are credited as co-writers, they never worked together and actually never even met each other until they were collecting their awards.
* According to his co-star Karl Malden, Scott caused a shooting delay by immersing himself in a ping-pong tournament against a world-champion table-tennis player. Scott (who was in full costume and makeup) kept losing to the champ; yet he was determined to win at least one set, even if they had to stand there playing the entire night.
* Paul Frees dubbed the voice of the Morrocan Minister, and can also be heard at least two other times: once during the press interview soon after the soldier slapping scene, and again near the end of the film, when a reporter interviewing General Patton (who is riding his horse around an indoor track) leads him on by asking the General about similarities between the Nazi party in Germany and the Republican and Democrat parties in the United States.
* George C. Scott felt he hadn't really captured the full character of Patton. He would apologize to 'Franklin Schaffner' on the set for not fully realizing the complexity of the man.
* The American and British tanks in the film are World War II vintage M-24 "Chaffee" light tanks. The German tanks, however, are portrayed by American-built postwar M-47 and M-48 tanks. Ironically, both the M-47 and M-48 types are called "Patton" tanks.
* Part of the film was filmed at a Over Peover in Cheshire. This was the actual location that Eisenhower and Patton would meet (specifically at the pub, the Bells of Peover). The pub is till there, and flies both the Union Flag and the Stars and Stripes outside to commemorate its part in history.
* The invasion of Sicily via Syracuse that Patton describes being executed by Alciabiades was an embarrassing defeat for the Athenians and Alcibiades was condemned as a traitor.
* After Karl Malden as General Bradley loses his helmet when his jeep is blown up by German artillery, he says to his driver, "Give me that helmet, Sekulovich!" This is part of Malden's insistence that there always be a character named Sekulovich in all his films, in reference to his own birth name, Mladen Sekulovich.
* The movie begins without showing the 20th Century Fox logo, or any other indication that the film is starting. At military bases across the U.S., theater owners reported that soldiers in the audience would often stand up and snap to attention when they heard the movie's opening line ("Ten-hut!"), assuming it to be a real call to attention.
* The German planes are a Spanish version of the Heinkel He 111, built under license by CASA. These are the same planes as featured in the film The Battle of Britain. Ironically, these Heinkels are powered by British made Rolls Royce Merlin engines, the same engines that powered Spitfires and Hurricanes against the German Luftwaffe during World War II.
* The scene where Patton tells General Truscott that he did serve with Napoleon is in reference to a poem which Patton wrote titled, "Through a Glass Darkly". In the poem, Patton talks about vague memories of six separate past lives, from caveman, to Ancient Roman, to Napoleonic Frenchman, and being a soldier in each and every life.
* Initially, George C. Scott refused to film the famous speech in front of the American Flag when he learned that the speech was going to come at the opening of the film. He felt that if they put that scene at the beginning, then the rest of his performance would not live up to that scene. So director Franklin Schaffner lied to Scott and told him that the scene would be put at the end of the film.
* In reality, at the time he hit the wounded soldier, Patton had been without sleep for nearly 48 hours and after hitting him, returned a couple of hours later and apologized.
* Soldiers who served under the real Patton said that the general's voice was surprisingly high-pitched.
* The scene where General Truscott tells Patton "Your an old athlete yourself General, you know matches are sometimes postponed". Patton actually had represented the U.S.A. at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm by competing in the Modern Pentathlon. Patton finished a credible fifth in the competition. Remarkably it was the shooting element that let him down. In true Patton style he used his military .38 revolver instead of the lighter .22 favored by most of the athletes. Patton was also an expert fencer. He re-wrote the armies manuals on swordsmanship removing the 'parry.' His idea was for all attack. Defence just wasted energy. Such was his mastery of swordsmanship that he designed the last saber ever to be worn into battle as a weapon, the M1913 Cavalry Saber, commonly known as the "Patton Saber".
* This was one of President Richard Nixon's favorite films. He had his own print, and would often watch it in the White House, particularly before having to make an important military decisions in Vietnam and Cambodia.
* Patton's line about wanting to "lead a lot of men in a desperate battle" was actually written in a letter to his brother-in-law on the ship crossing the Atlantic on the way to North Africa.
* Somewhat perversely, "Patton" was re-released in early 1971 following the announcement of Oscar nominations on a double bill with a very different war film, also from 20th Century Fox and a Oscar nominee for best picture: MASH (1970).
Goofs
* Anachronisms: 1948 Packard car in front of headquarters.
* Continuity: When Gen Fredendall is leaving II Corps headquarters after being relieved by Gen Patton, his jeep passes Patton's command car where two soldiers are replacing the two star plate with a three star plate. In a following scene when Patton visits an ancient Carthegenian battlefield, there is a two star plate on his command car.
* Anachronisms: In the Moroccan Parade scene, the submachine guns carried by the soldiers are MAT-49s, adopted by the French Army in 1950.
* Anachronisms: The tanks used in the major battle scene in North Africa are post-war tanks. On the German side the M48 tank (1953) was used and on the American side the M47 (1952). Ironically, both tank types were named "Patton."
* Factual errors: The prayer for good weather was actually put on the back of a small Christmas card that was printed for the troops on December 11th, five days before the Battle of the Bulge began. The actual prayer contained the words "these immoderate rains" while the movie version said "this immoderate weather."
* Revealing mistakes: In the scene following Patton's speech, a child is trying to steal a dead soldier's wedding ring. As he goes about this, the soldier's shoulder/arm muscles twitch visibly in reaction to the scorpions climbing on him. His head and eyelids can also be seen moving several times.
* Crew or equipment visible: As Patton is viewing the battlefield through binoculars and facing the camera, various lights/booms etc are clearly reflected in the binocular lenses.
* Anachronisms: Germany is already divided to East and West Germany in the map of Europe seen in the headquarters, and all other national borders are post WWII.
* Factual errors: When Field Marshal Montgomery is informed that Patton has taken Palermo in Sicily, the British flag beside him is hung upside down.
* Continuity: When Patton learns he has been relieved of command of the 7th Army, Willie "George" Meeks escorts Patton's aide while wearing Staff Sergeant's stripes. In a later scene when Meeks is waiting for Patton to prepare for bed, Meeks is wearing the stripes of a Sergeant.
* Continuity: A German soldier writing down the number of casualties is shown marking the thousands with commas, as usual in English. Later, the same soldier is shown using periods for thousands, as a German would.
* Revealing mistakes: The extreme close-up of Patton's eyebrows in the opening scene shows the mesh netting of the fake eyebrows.
* Revealing mistakes: As we see the local spectators during the Moroccan military parade, one little boy keeps making faces and waving into the camera in every shot.
* Revealing mistakes: In the first battle of the film, a high angle long-shot shows a German soldier following a tank who falls forward from the shock of an explosion that happens behind him. But he falls shortly before the blast.
* Crew or equipment visible: When Patton is directing traffic in the muddy field, one of the tanks that is coming toward the camera is driven by a man wearing civilian clothes and a beret.
* Continuity: In Palermo, Patton climbs some steps to meet with the local Cardinal. As Patton starts up the steps, guards on those steps stand at attention and salute. In the next shot, as Patton kisses the Cardinal's ring, the guards are in the "at-ease" position.
* Revealing mistakes: During the first major battle in North Africa, the track marks from the German tank that overruns the infantry unit only start from 20 feet behind the tank.
* Continuity: When Patton tries to convince Maj. Gen. Lucian K. Truscott to launch an amphibious attack against the Germans, the bench on which he's reclining is flush against the wall. In the reverse-angle shots over Patton's shoulder, the entire back of the bench is visible as if it's several feet from the wall.
* Factual errors: Patton is shown having read a book, "The Tank in Battle", by his adversary, Erwin Rommel. The book "Panzer greift an" was however never finished by Rommel. Most of what was to be in "The Tank in Attack" (which is the correct translation of the German title) can be found in the book The Rommel Papers, which is made from notes and diary entries by Field Marshal Rommel during the Africa campaign.
* Continuity: When Patton talks with noncommissioned officers about Montgomery's campaign in Sicily, he has a magnifying glass in his left hand and a cup in his right. He sets down the magnifying glass to hold the cup with his left hand to put it on the table. In the next shot the cup is already on the table and he is holding the magnifying glass with the left hand.
* Factual errors: During the first battle scene Patton oversees, he uses a pair of binoculars clearly marked "JAPAN".
* Anachronisms: The German He-111 bombers that attack during the early battle scenes of the film were not equipped for the types of missions portrayed. These bombers were high-altitude level bombers and not dedicated ground attack aircraft. The German Luftwaffe would most likely have used Messerschmitt 109 fighters, Junkers Ju-88 bombers, or Junkers Ju-87 "Stuka" Tank killers for these missions.
* Factual errors: Early in the movie (after the Battle for the Kasserine Pass), it is mentioned that U.S. tanks used gasoline, the Germans used diesel. In fact all of Germany's World War II tanks used gasoline (petrol) except for some prototypes.
* Factual errors: This movie makes use of the real WWII Jeeps - the MB, GPW; manufactured by Willys & Ford from 1941 - 1945 as well as the first civilian Jeep vehicle, the CJ-2A produced in 1945. The CJ came with a tailgate, side-mounted spare tire, larger headlights, an external fuel cap and many more items that its military predecessors did not include. This "goof" is common in WWII movies.
* Crew or equipment visible: When General Bedell Smith and Monty are discussing Sicily in the latrine, the shadow of the cameraman is seen behind Smith.
* Anachronisms: In the scene with the Russians, where they dance and Patton skates very close to open insults, the camera pans the scene from behind the orchestra. At least one of the guitars being played seems to be of a type/style that was not developed until the 1950s.
* Factual errors: When General Walter Bedell Smith meets with General Patton upon the latter's arrival in London, Smith is wearing what is supposed to be the S.H.A.E.F. (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces) shoulder patch. He is in fact wearing the US Army Europe patch which came out after WW II and is almost exactly the same in design, except the background of the S.H.A.E.F. patch is black and the U.S. Army Europe patch has a blue background.
* Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Visiting the Carthaginian ancient battle field in Tunisia, Patton says, "The Arab women stripped the dead soldiers of their clothing." There were no Arabs in Tunisia during the Punic wars.
* Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Patton quotes Frederick the Great as saying, "L'audace, l'audace. Toujours l'audace!" Historians attribute this quote to the French revolutionary Danton.
* Miscellaneous: As Bradley and his aides inspect the Kasserine battlefield, an officer shoots two vultures with his Thompson sub-machine gun. The shots are so close together that the weapon must be firing on full automatic. This would be a virtually impossible feat of marksmanship with this type of weapon.
* Anachronisms: One of the planes seen in the film is a Cessna L-19 Bird Dog, which first flew in 1950.
* Factual errors: In the scene where Patton visits Bradley's Command Post in Normandy, France, he delivers a line of dialogue that says Hitler's own people tried to kill him just a few days ago. This would place the timeline of this meeting just after July 20, 1944 (the day of the actual assassination attempt on Hitler), but before July 25, 1944 (The start of the Allied Cobra operation) which was also discussed at this meeting. Immediately after this scene, there is a cut to a German Command bunker where Rommel is complaining that his men are being slaughtered in Normandy. The timeline of this latter scene is in error as Rommel, by this time, was severely wounded by an Allied fighter attack plane on July 17, 1944 and very much out-of-the-action from this day onwards.
* Incorrectly regarded as goofs: In the opening scene where Patton is addressing troops in front of the giant flag he has the four stars of a full general on his helmet, a rank he did not attain until the last month of the war in Europe. Therefore many assume that his address, which was for the benefit of green troops about to enter combat for the first time, would have been delivered when he was at a lower rank of major general or lieutenant general. However, this speech is a composite of several different speeches he delivered throughout the war to units of different sizes and command levels. While much of his speech in the opening of film was extracted from one particular speech he gave to various units in the Spring of 1944 just prior to D-Day, it does not actually represent any specific speech within any particular time frame. The producers actually considered inserting it at the end of the Intermission.
* Factual errors: When Patton arrives in Malta, he makes a speech about the Great Siege of Malta, involving the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. However, he puts the date of this defence as 1528. In fact, the siege took place in 1565 - indeed, the Knights were not granted Malta and Tripoli by Charles V of Spain until 1530. He also gives the figure for the number of defenders as 400 Knights with 800 mercenaries when in fact the accepted number is nearer 9000 in total (including Maltese militia). 40,000 attackers is the highest level of the accepted estimates and the more realistic figure is most likely around 25-30,000.
* Factual errors: Gen. Lloyd Fredendall is shown leaving Le Kouif after Patton's arrival at the headquarters. In fact, Fredendall left Le Kouif at 3:30 AM, hours before Patton's arrival. Likewise, Fredendall left in a Buick rather than a Jeep as shown.
Filming Locations
Almería, Andalucía, Spain
Bob Hope Patriotic Hall - 1816 S. Figueroa Street, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA
(opening speech)
Casablanca, Morocco
Crete, Greece
Greece
Italy
La Granja, Segovia, Castilla y León, Spain
Over Peover, Knutsford, Cheshire, England, UK
Rabat, Morocco
Sierra de Urbasa, Navarra, Spain
Spain
Timgad, Algeria
Volubilis, Meknès, Morocco
